Reaction
The tragedy received media attention and support from across the world, with those offering their sympathy included Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II.
The club's own chairman Stafford Heginbotham said: "It was to be our day" and coach Terry Yorath said: "It is the worst day in my life." Police Superintendent Barry Osborne, divisional commander for the area, said many of his officers cried when they saw how badly people had been burned.
The disaster also had an effect on the fans. Christopher Hammond, who was 12 on the day, said on the 20th anniversary of the fire: "As a 12-year-old, it was easy to move on – I didn't realise how serious it was until I looked at the press coverage over the next few days. But looking back and seeing how much it really affected my dad makes me realise what we went through." His father Tony went back the following day and said: "I wondered how anybody had got out alive, but I also began to feel guilty that I had got out when so many hadn't." He had to undergo counselling and was unable to go to another game for several years. Matthew Wildman was 17 at the time and suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which meant he needed crutches to walk. He was helped out of the stand by other fans and spent a period of time in hospital. He later said: "I have never known anything like it, either before, or since. Everybody in the city was devastated, but there was an amazing number of volunteers. I still have terrible memories of the day, but it is the humanity of those that helped us that I reflect on."
Read more about this topic: Bradford City Stadium Fire
Famous quotes containing the word reaction:
“The excessive increase of anything often causes a reaction in the opposite direction.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“Children, randomly at first, hit upon something sooner or later that is their mother’s and/or father’s Achilles’ heel, a kind of behavior that especially upsets, offends, irritates or embarrasses them. One parent dislikes name-calling, another teasing...another bathroom jokes. For the parents, this behavior my have ties back to their childhood, many have been something not allowed, forbidden, and when it appears in the child, it causes high-voltage reaction in the parent.”
—Ellen Galinsky (20th century)
“Christianity was only a very strong and singularly well-timed Salvation Army movement that happened to receive help from an unusual and highly dramatic incident. It was a Puritan reaction in an age when, no doubt, a Puritan reaction was much wanted; but like all sudden violent reactions, it soon wanted reacting against.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)